Playtesting Observations

A place to read and talk about our official updates, errata and addenda for Darklands. Please post all rules queries here!
Rhadamenth
Posts: 3
Joined: Sat Sep 28, 2013 3:21 pm

Playtesting Observations

Postby Rhadamenth » Mon Sep 30, 2013 8:46 pm

I haven't seen anyone talk about how the rules actually play yet so me and a friend of mine have been trying out a vassal datafile he hotrigged to work with the current rules. So far a few things have cropped up and we'd just like to share our observations and see if anyone else has had similar experiences. Please do take this as the constructive feedback it is meant to be as we both are greatly impressed by the miniatures and setting and would love nothing more than for it to be a success. The main rules are also very fleshed out and the quality of writing is superb. We are currently both backers in the second kickstarter as we missed the first one and are eagerly awaiting how it progresses. We are kicking ourselves for missing the first one. :P

So far we have played small games. We did not use any magic or longer-range shooting in the battles so this may actually have had an influence in our experiences but I will post them nevertheless.

1. The rules feel intuitive and it is a great idea that your troops get to defend themselves by parrying incoming attacks. However, the actual combat between monstrous infantry appears to devolve around rolling 5+ for both sides and the lack of any special rules or traits make the combat feel a lot less cinematic than they could do. I know the current rules are merely living rules and a few things are unexplained (like the effects of fire/cold as a damagetype for example) but as a skirmish game the troops as they stand feel like they could use more 'flavour' in the sense of distinguishing traits apart from the statistic differences such as abilities that could create opportunities for interesting synergies and reinforce thematic differences between armies.

2. Gamebalance is currently an issue which is to be expected as the muster rules are still living. As it stands the Gorgonares are far too good at their current cost in comparison to other kindred's monstrous infantry and even in comparison to the Khthones' own other monstrous infantry options. The total amount of attacks they can dish out in a round of combat combined with the 2 parry dice each warrior gets with heavy armor for their low point cost make them the obvious best choice. I am not certain if the addition of morale rules would overly hinder their current performance as their fortitude is still quite high. In the games we played we felt that differences in statistics are not significant enough, as evidenced by the Gorgonares, and that number of attack dice is the dominant factor.

3. The combats felt like they bogged down as soon as the monstrous infantry clashed as they were only slowly wearing eachother down and it started to just come down to pure dice luck rather than any input from the player. We are aware that currently there is only monstrous infantry for certain factions and the addition of regular infantry might change this. We felt that the player had no real influence on the outcome after combat had begun.

These are the main things we have noticed so far. We will continue to playtest as newer rules get released and try and provide feedback when we can!
crazyfeet36
Posts: 10
Joined: Thu Mar 07, 2013 12:07 am

Re: Playtesting Observations

Postby crazyfeet36 » Tue Oct 01, 2013 9:51 pm

Hey Rhadamenth,

Our gaming group is about 10 games down of darklands, and tbh i agree with you on all points so far.

In my opinion though it doesnt take away from the game, im enjoying playing it, but i think most of the issues come from the quickstart rules being really basic. I think when the full rulebook comes out we will see more rules for each unit type so the variance will come from that. Also they plan to have a combat resolution system sort of like warhammer fantasy so that will stop combats getting bogged down.

As for the Gorgons being a bit too good, i dont think they have had all that much time for playtesting. Which is why there going with living profiles/rules :D

Throwing magic and shooting in definately adds more to the game, specially some of the things the ysians can do! Also actually using orders besides attack (something i dont do) can make a big difference in games.
bloodwars
Posts: 80
Joined: Mon Feb 25, 2013 9:17 pm

Re: Playtesting Observations

Postby bloodwars » Sun Oct 06, 2013 8:58 am

yeah, it seems like right now the order system isn't all the useful. most people just seem to sit on attack all game. it seems like if the system is going to use an orders system, the orders need to matter (or be differentiated) a lot more than they currently are.

maybe i'm playing it wrong.

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